Offtopic/fun » domestic football and rugby has increased marke

SEATTLE -- After weeks of mostly poor performances, Marco Estrada once again flirted with a no-hitter for Toronto.And just when the Blue Jays needed that quality of a performance.Estrada took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Edwin Encarnacion hit his 41st home run and the Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Monday night in the opener of a critical three-game series.Estrada (9-9) had allowed only two walks before Robinson Cano led off the seventh with a line drive up the middle on a 2-1 pitch. Cano and Nelson Cruz walked in the fourth -- an inning that ended on Kevin Pillars sliding catch to save a run -- but Estrada otherwise kept the Mariners off the bases before Canos single.Estradas outing was exactly what the slumping Blue Jays needed. They arrived in Seattle having dropped two straight and four of six, and their wild-card lead dwindled in the process. Estrada was partly to blame for the September swoon. In his previous six starts, he was 1-4 with a 7.53 ERA. In September alone, Estrada had allowed 12 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings.But he was brilliant against the Mariners, keeping the thousands of Blue Jays fans that made the trip south from British Columbia cheering all night as Toronto pulled even with Baltimore for the first wild-card spot. Both teams are 2 1/2 games clear of Detroit and three ahead of Seattle and Houston.Im not really sure whats been going on, as the game gets going I start to struggle a little bit, Estrada said. We looked at video and there have been little things here and there that we caught. We changed it up and felt pretty good today.Estrada was pulled after walking Leonys Martin leading off the eighth inning, leaving to a standing ovation from the huge Blue Jays contingent. He struck out eight and walked three before being replaced by Jason Grilli.The final six outs were trying for the Blue Jays. Pinch-hitter Ben Gamel walked to put two runners on with no outs in the eighth, and Seth Smith walked on a nine-pitch at-bat with two outs to load the bases for Cano.Closer Roberto Osuna entered and got Cano to line out to the warning track in right field where Ezequiel Carrera was playing. Martin hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Osuna, but Gamel struck out looking to cap Osunas 34th save.We know whats ahead of us, and we arent going to back away from it, Seattle manager Scott Servais said. I thought our guys gave a really good effort tonight, just wasnt enough.Encarnacions two-run homer off starter Taijuan Walker (6-11) came with two outs in the third on a 0-1 pitch that was left up in the strike zone. Pillar added a two-out RBI single in the fourth inning after Troy Tulowitzki led off with a double.NEAR MISSESEstrada has never completed a no-hitter, but hes been close. He lost a no-hit bid in the eighth inning against Boston on June 5, and also pitched hitless ball into the eighth inning in consecutive starts in June 2015.Its not something that I was focused on. Obviously if it would have happened it would have been incredible but it didnt. Cano hit a pretty good pitch, Estrada said.DONALDSON TOSSEDTorontos Josh Donaldson was ejected in the seventh inning arguing with plate umpire Chris Conroy after being called out on strikes. Donaldson was already upset about a check-swing Conroy called a strike earlier in the at-bat and flipped at being called out on a fastball on the outside corner. Donaldson immediately got in Conroys face and was quickly tossed.UP NEXTBlue Jays: LHP J.A. Happ (19-4) goes for his 20th win. Happ would join Bostons Rick Porcello as the only two pitchers in baseball with 20 wins this season. Happ has won 13 of his last 14 decisions.Mariners: RHP Hisashi Iwakuma (16-11) looks for his third straight victory. Iwakuma allowed just one run in 6 1/3 innings in his last start against the Angels.Vapormax Hvid Herre Danmark . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. Vapormax Herre Udsalg . Jay Feely kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime, and the Cardinals edged the Tennessee Titans 37-34 in overtime after blowing a 17-point lead late in the fourth quarter. http://www.vapormaxdanmark.com/ .C. -- Manny Malhotra had two goals and an assist, leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Nike Vapormax Tilbud Danmark . Mitch Holmberg added a goal and three assists. Connor Chartier also scored for the Chiefs (3-0-0). Luke Harrison spoiled Garrett Hughsons shutout bid with a power-play goal at 13:17 of the third period. The Spokane goaltender finished with 28 saves, including a Brandon Fushimi penalty shot in the second period that would have tied the game 1-1. Vapormax Herre Zalando .ca NHL Power Rankings for the second straight week, ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche.Surrey have introduced a ballot to cope with demand for their NatWest T20 Blast match against Middlesex at The Oval.The match has sold out for the last three seasons so, in an attempt to meet demand and gain data from the largest possible audience, the club have now decided to treat the game as they would an international fixture.It is anticipated that attendances for the T20 Blast will rise beyond a million for the first time in 2017. The tournament has been moved back into high summer - it has started in mid-May for the last couple of years - meaning it can take advantage of the warmer weather and school holidays. Surreys home match against Middlesex will take place on Friday, July 21.Over the last four years, half-a-million people have seen Surrey play T20 cricket at The Oval, Surrey chief executive Richard Gould told ESPNcricinfo. 65% of those people had never previously attended a professional cricket match and 125,000 of them were either women or U-16s.The current competition, when well marketed and staged, is very effective at reaching a new audience.The timing of the announcement comes not only as the ECB release the domestic fixture list for 2017 but as they renewed calls on the counties to sign a document (a redrafted version of which was circulated this week) handing over their media rights to the ECB until the end of 2024. As things stand, several of the counties argue that there is no specific agreement preventing them from selling domestic matches at their own grounds independently of the ECB.The original version of the document found little support - ESPNcricinfo understands that about a third of the counties signed it - and while the new version clarifies a few details (the counties are guaranteed ￡1.3m each a year on top of their current ECB income if they all sign), it specifies that they agree to all aspects of the new team T20 competition the ECB is planning from 2020.As counties do not currently know where or when those games will be staged, what the teams will be called, what other cricket will take place at the same time and the value of the alternative broadcast deal, there are several - perhaps even a majority - that are reluctant to sign. Until they do so, the ECB cannot be certain that they can prevent a breakkaway league, though in reality that remains unlikely.ddddddddddddMeanwhile a report commissioned by Surrey - who are leading the opposition to the eight-team competition favoured by the ECB - and distributed among the counties has cast doubt on the valuations obtained by the ECB for the relative worth of the different T20 competitions. While the ECB valuation suggested broadcast rights for the current competition were worth between ￡5-7m a year and a new eight-team competition worth between ￡30-35m, the new report concludes that they are significantly undervaluing the broadcast appeal of county T20 cricket.While domestic cricket is officially ascribed a nil value in the broadcast deal between the ECB and Sky, the new report suggests that Sky unofficially ascribed 20% of the value of the deal with the ECB (currently ￡65m a year) to county cricket when tendering for 2009. That provided a value of ￡13m to domestic competitions. With the increased profile of modern T20, the report suggests that value can now be increased to 20-25%, providing a value of ￡16.25m between 2014-2017 and ￡23.12m between 2018-2019, when the worth of the current broadcast deal increases to ￡92.5m a year.The report also notes that, since BT Sport added competition to the broadcast market, the value of deals for domestic football and rugby has increased markedly.The report concludes that, a re-launched T20 competition involving all 18 first-class counties involved, sold on the open market and starting in 2020 could be worth around ￡35m a year.It would seem to underline the findings of an independent report by Oliver and Ohlbaum, analysts of the media and entertainment industries, from August which concluded there is little consumer demand for the proposed city-based T20 competition even among younger and currently more casual fans of cricket.Over 80% of sports fans surveyed by O&O this summer showed no interest at all in a city-based T20 competition, it said.That report concluded that the ECB had lost out on an estimated ￡60m of potential broadcast revenue when it did its last TV deal, back in 2011 just before BT Sport entered the market. ' ' '